The President of the United States of America will have the power to identify human rights violators worldwide, and place sanctions on these individuals under a new Bill introduced to the US House of Congress. The Global Human Rights Accountability Act, also known as the Global Magnitsky Act, was introduced by Senators Ben Cardin and John McCain and is an expansion on a previously existing Bill from 2012.
The current Magnitsky Act can only be applied to Russian citizens. The proposed expansion, according to a spokesman from the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT), would almost certainly include names of Chinese officials who have roles in the occupation of Tibet. President of the ICT, Matteo Mecacci, was quoted as saying “The US government can send a strong message … by acting to restrict visa entry and freezing the assets of Chinese officials complicit in human rights abuses in China and Tibet.”
The updated Act would “Direct the President to designate foreign nationals whom he determines—based on credible information—is responsible for extrajudicial killings, torture, or other human rights violations committed against individuals seeking to promote human rights or to expose illegal activity carried out by government officials. Aliens on this list will be deemed ineligible to enter or be admitted to the United States; visas issued for persons on the list will be revoked”, and to “Direct the President to freeze assets and prohibit US property transactions of such individuals.”
The Act is named after Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian Government corruption whistleblower, who died in Russian custody in 2009. There were no arrests made regarding his death, and Magnitsky was posthumously charged with tax evasion. When the Magnitsky Bill was passed in 2012, Russia responded with a black list of their own, focusing on government officials who worked at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre.
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